UN PNR for all:
UN Security Council mandates worldwide air travel surveillance
and profiling, biometric collection, terrorist watchlists8.1.18Follow us:
| | TweetIn the name of "preventing, detecting and
investigating terrorist offenses and related travel," all
UN Member States must develop systems for processing and analysing
Passenger Name Record (PNR), Advance Passenger Information (API)
and "fingerprints, photographs, facial recognition, and
other relevant identifying biometric data", according to
a UN Security Council resolution (no. 2396) agreed on 21 December
2017.

PNR data is collected by airlines and travel
agents when individuals purchase airline tickets and includes
a wide
range of personal and other data (pdf). API is the biographical
data contained in individuals' passports.

EU Member States are obliged to gather
and process API under a 2004
Directive and by May 2017 all EU Member States are supposed
to implement the EU
PNR Directive that mandates the gathering and processing
of PNR data on all travellers leaving, entering or travelling
within the EU; numerous other states around the globe also collect
and process PNR and API data for counter-terrorism and law enforcement
purposes. (The EU provisions on flights within the EU were added
by Member States by means of a "declaration", ignoring
the opposition of the European Parliament.)

Under the heading 'Border Security and
Information Sharing', the UN Security Council Resolution - which
is binding on UN Member States - demands that practically every
state in the world adopt API and PNR systems, if they do not
already have them, opening the door to massive pre-emptive profiling
of air travellers. In the future, other modes of transport may
also be covered - the EU has previously considered extending
PNR schemes to rail and boat travel, while last year Belgium,
France, the Netherlands and the UK agreed
to introduce a PNR system for rail travel.

"Under the EU PNR Directive, everyones
PNR information  whether or not you are a suspect for any
crime  is indiscriminately collected and shared with local
enforcement authorities, and then stored for five years just
in case it later becomes relevant to vaguely defined serious
crime and terrorism. Nothing has been presented to show this
will do anything to help catch criminals or terrorists, and with
more than 900 millions air passengers travelling in the EU every
year, the sheer volume of personal information gathered and retained
is well beyond what is necessary or proportionate. The directive
therefore stands in violation of your fundamental rights to privacy
and data protection."

One of the key aims of the EU PNR Directive
is the development of profiling systems against which all passengers'
data will be compared to determine whether they may be a 'person
of interest'. Such "risk-based screening" is now set
to go global.

Biometrics and watchlists for all

Resolution 2396(2017) also:

"Decides that Member States
shall develop and implement systems to collect biometric data,
which could include fingerprints, photographs, facial recognition,
and other relevant identifying biometric data, in order to
responsibly and properly identify terrorists, including foreign
terrorist fighters, in compliance with domestic law and international
human rights law, calls upon other Member States, international,
regional, and subregional entities to provide technical assistance,
resources, and capacity building to Member States in order to
implement such systems and encourages Member States to share
this data responsibly among relevant Member States, as appropriate,
and with INTERPOL and other relevant international bodies."
[emphasis added]

It further mandates that:

"Member States shall develop watch
lists or databases of known and suspected terrorists, including
foreign terrorist fighters, for use by law enforcement, border
security, customs, military, and intelligence agencies to screen
travelers and conduct risk assessments and investigations, in
compliance with domestic and international law, including human
rights law, and encourages Member States to share this information
through bilateral and multilateral mechanisms."

"Downgrade" intelligence

Amongst other things, the Resolution also
calls for UN Member States to "consider, where appropriate,
downgrading for official use intelligence threat and related
travel data." In this regard it must be recalled that "intelligence"
gathered by security agencies does not always have to meet the
legal standards that would be required for data gathered by law
enforcement agencies.

Aside from 'Border Security and Information
Sharing', the Resolution also outlines a host of requirements
under the headings 'Judicial Measures and International Cooperation'
and 'Prosecution, Rehabilitation and Reintegration Strategies',
as well as outlining various actions that should be taken by
the UN.

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